History of Art and Design, Fashion and Dress History and Visual Culture brochure

Graduate Show 2021

BA (Hons) History of Art and Design Fashion and Dress History Visual Culture

BA (Hons) History of Art and Design BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History BA (Hons) Visual Culture

BA (Hons) History of Art and Design

We are face to face with this great world and our relations to it are manifold.

(Rabindranath Tagore, “What is Art?”, 1916.)

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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design

Welcome… …to the 2021 online Degree Show, featuring dissertation research by students in the History of Art and Design programme, University of Brighton. This showcase encompasses three undergraduate courses: BA (Hons) History of Art and Design, BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History and BA (Hons) Visual Culture. For these students, the dissertation is the fulfilment of a year’s intensive research. Topics emerge from students’ own enthusiasms and specialist teaching. Their independent study develops through a range of supported milestones, culminating in this final public presentation.

2021 has been marked by further challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in disruptions to all aspects of daily life across the globe. For BA History of Art and Design this has been no exception. Students have turned the challenges posed by Covid to their advantage and have expanded the scope of their research topics and methods, such as making current virtual practices and human behaviours the topic of study, consulting online resources and conducting interviews online. For the second year, the Degree Show takes place online rather than in person. While students gather virtually again this year, their exhibition nonetheless represents a major achievement under extraordinary circumstances.

As you will see, students’ projects cut across time and place, from the eighteenth century to the present, and include local concerns as well as international case studies. The themes cover gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, class and taste, politics and protest, consumption and collecting, craft and technology, horror and pleasure, structures and their subversion. The images, objects, media and sites include the sacred and the profane, the elite and the humble. Students engage with painting, photography and performance; film and digital media; advertising, periodicals and packaging; architecture, furniture and interiors; historic houses, galleries and exhibitions; fashion, dress and textiles. Students conduct research in libraries, archives and museums, and via interviews and fieldwork. Please take your time to enjoy the fruits of their labour; we are truly proud of them.

If this whets your appetite for pursuing similar studies, our contact details can be found at the back of the catalogue. As part of our wider provision, we offer MA Curating Collections and Heritage and MA History of Design and Material Culture.

These enable further depth and specialism and we offer advanced level research to PhD. Dr Yunah Lee and Dr Megha Rajguru (Academic Programme Leaders, History of Art and Design)

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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design

BA (Hons) History of Art and Design

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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design

The Arcadian Landscapes of Claude Lorrain and their Influence in the Development of the English Country House Garden Stephen Cavenagh

Claude Lorrain.

Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia. 1682.

Oil on canvas. 120cm x 150cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Claude Lorrain’s Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia (1682) narrates the story from Virgil’s The Aeniad. The painting’s allusions to classical literature and the representation of a ‘Golden Age’ through the arcadian iconography of classical buildings, water features and lush vegetation in a pastoral setting were typical of the artist’s work. Claude’s landscapes appealed to 18th-century British Grand Tourists because of the paintings’ strong association with favourite destinations on the Grand Tour - the Campagna region outside Rome and the historic town of Tivoli.

Claude’s work was collected with great enthusiasm by the British elite returning from their Continental tours. The arcadian landscape tradition became all the ‘rage’ in late 18th-century Britain, when a more confident Britain was entering her own ‘Golden Age’. It was in the country house parks established by the British aristocracy that the pastoral tradition found its most ardent expression. Influenced by Claude’s Liber Veritas, William Kent and his pupil ‘Capability’ Brown were commissioned to replace the formal garden designs at the great country houses with more naturalistic, informal gardens that included features from Claude’s paintings.

Twenty-seven books, published between 1984 and 2016, were used for this dissertation; only one referred to slavery and colonialism as the origin of the wealth needed for the Grand Tour and the development of the country house and gardens. By addressing the origin of funding, this dissertation seeks to redress a neglected aspect of history.

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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design

Class within the Artistic Movement of the Young British Artists Susanna Connolly

BANK. Mask of Gold.

A4 paper. Goldsmiths Library Archive.

Photograph taken by author.

At the start of the 1990s, a group of graduates from the London art college Goldsmiths began organising group shows in the de-industrialised wasteland of the London Docklands. Many of these graduates also began colonising spaces in the large abandoned light factories in Hoxton and the broader Shoreditch area. They quickly acquired national fame under the title Young British Artists, coined through the naming of the group shows by media mogul and contemporary art patron Charles Saatchi. This culminated in the blockbuster exhibition Sensation in 1997 held at the Royal Academy in West London.

During this time, an art collective named BANK began criticising this artistic movement. They believed that the removal of state funding had a profound effect on the artistic production of contemporary artists. They routinely critiqued the art world and its collusion with the market through targeted attacks within their press releases, posters and tabloid newspaper, The Bank. A key frustration of BANK was the prominence of art curators and administrators who came from backgrounds of privilege and attempted to use class politics to mobilise their art careers.

The Young British Artists movement became heavily associated with de-industrialised areas which they were working within. Adopting a position in these new territories allowed them to differentiate themselves from the art establishment located in West London and capitalise on an alternative, fictionalised working-class identity.

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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design

Cultural Care Movement: Catalysts and Traces in Contemporary Art during the Last Two Decades Charmaine Coombs

Makoto Fujimura’s work “Silence” on display in the Waterfall Mansion Gallery in New York.

Photograph. 2014.

Culture Care, a new contemporary art movement valuing art as essential for unity between cultures, was begun by artist Makoto Fujimura to end culture wars. This research seeks to understand the movement and its traces that may already be present in a wider range of contemporary artworks (in particular, spiritual art). This study analyses Culture Care’s core themes as well as exploring the relationship between Culture Care and other contemporary art examples. This is investigated by comparing and contrasting Fujimura’s artwork, secondary sources and a primary source Interview with Brighton-based artist Cecil Rice. Heavily guiding research, investigation and analysis was Makoto Fujimura’s writings in his book Culture Care.

This book details Culture Care’s signature elements, leading this dissertation’s analysis of Culture Care practitioners and other contemporary artists’ works.

By looking at Culture Care in spiritual terms, this dissertation primarily focuses on exploring traces rooted in multiple theoretical/ideological frameworks also found within the book Culture Care. These include gifting, globalisation and the effects of commodification on artists, ultimately linking them back towards finding Culture Care’s trace works. Further investigation and analysis of Culture Care’s practitioners reveal six key trace elements, also known as the 3Gs and 3Rs. These elements will be used to track traces in explored artists’ work throughout this paper’s investigation.

As a final point, this research heavily focuses on the evolving discussion of what makes contemporary spiritual/biblical art, including its benefits for both cultures and artists. This adds to the little written about the subject following on from Makoto Fujimura’s ideas around the subject matter.

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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design

Francis Bacon.

Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion. c. 1944.

Oil paint on three boards. Each board 1162 × 960 × 80 mm.

Tate Britain.

Francis Bacon and Sensation: An Exploration into How Francis Bacon Adapted the Concept of Sensation in his Artistic Practice, and How This Led to the Manifestation of his Personal Narrative Rachael Coombs Francis Bacon is known for the unsettling biomorphs that appear throughout his paintings. The eerie paintings Bacon has produced have given him notoriety within British art history. There is also an air of mystery surrounding Bacon’s paintings and their biomorphic forms. Deliberately vague or dismissive of any personal narrative placed upon his paintings, Bacon has stirred a plethora of debate surrounding his paintings.

This dissertation examines Bacon’s artistic process, particularly focusing on the concept of sensation, to explore Bacon’s intentions and meanings within his paintings. Sensation is a concept established by the French Impressionist painter, Paul Cézanne, in an effort to produce work closer to real life by simulating all the senses, not just the visual. Through studying sensation, I argue that Bacon adapted the Impressionist technique within his own work in order to fit within his own painting ethos. In order to understand Bacon’s painting ethos, I study the catalogued database of Bacon’s personal library, curated by Dublin City Library. I argue it was Bacon’s literary influences, in particular the writings of T.S. Eliot and Sigmund Freud, that provide clarity behind both his motivations in his paintings and how they represent his personal narrative. Through studying Bacon’s artistic practice, this dissertation aims to clarify the ambiguity surrounding the artist’s unnerving paintings.

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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design

Re-imagining Thamesmead: Exploring the Relationship between Architecture and Community Leonie Houching Abbey Way play area with repurposed sewage pipes, in front of the west facade of Maran Way. 1975. Colour Photograph.

London Metropolitan Archives.

Thamesmead is a town situated in South East London and sits directly under the river Thames. The town includes a council estate built in the late 1960s, heavily inspired by Brutalist architecture, which in 2021 is set to be completely demolished to make way for regeneration of the area. Although general attitudes towards council estates are often negative, with many perceiving the endless tower blocks and walkways outdated and rampant in crime, this dissertation aims to investigate further.

Thamesmead was coined a ‘town of the future’ and many believed it could be a real-life utopia. The design and planning that went into it suggested it would incorporate lakes, green areas and social spaces harmoniously, alongside a modernist take of what social housing should look like. However, when the estate finally came to fruition many of these aspects were not there, as cuts in funding and budget constraints left the estate lacking. Despite this, many of the residents there recount wonderful childhoods, claiming they felt lucky and free. The implementation of parks and green areas meant that each resident in Thamesmead had plenty of space, unlike most estates built in central London. With the use of interviews and archival research, this writing aims to explore how Thamesmead residents interacted with this unique space, whilst investigating how structures and spaces can affect communities. It will question what is so important about how we interact with architecture, whilst also attempting to preserve a small piece of this estate’s history and the memories forged within it, before it is knocked down.

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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design

Edward Hopper: Curious Anomalies Behind the Life and Works of American Realist Brigita Litvinovic

Edward Hopper.

Self-portrait.

1925-1930. Oil on canvas. 64.5 x 51.8 cm.

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

In Edward Hopper’s Self-portrait (1925-1930) depicted by the American Realist painter in his mid-forties, he appears as a smiling, self-assured and confident man. He is widely known for his famous works Office at Night (1940) and Nighthawks (1942). Specifically, in the United States, his oeuvre is admired for the ‘realistic’ depiction of American life in the first half of the 20th century and for landscapes.

Hopper’s artistic career was successful: he won several awards for his contribution to American art and his works were exhibited in different museums in the United States. It might appear that Hopper’s life was satisfying, but there is another story hidden behind the successful artist. This is his personal life, which he tried to keep secret, but which is instead hidden in the fragments of his works.

This dissertation unravels some hidden messages from Hopper’s works. It also examines closely some key facts from the artist’s biography and applies them to some of his paintings of people in urban places and couples. His biography is significant not only for his journey to becoming an artist, but also for people who helped him achieve that, especially Josephine Hopper, his wife, muse and business partner.

To understand the psychology of the artist, the biographical analysis is supported with a psychoanalytic reading of Hopper’s works with specific allusion to Sigmund Freud’s (1856-1939) essay ‘The Uncanny’ (1919). This combined approach helped to identify some interesting facts about anomalies in Hopper’s personal life.

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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design

The Impact of the Male Gaze on Women’s Representation in Art Lola Lynn

Cindy Sherman, Film Still #84, 1978, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Silver Gelatin Print.

Coined by feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey in her 1975 essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’, the term ‘male gaze’ refers to the perspective of the normative heterosexual male, characterized by the tendency to depict women as sexual objects. Evidence of this is particularly prominent when examining how women are represented in art. Oftentimes, their portrayals adhere to the Western beauty standard of the slim, Caucasian, middle-class, domesticated woman, suggestive of their role of viewing pleasure for the male.

During the 1970s, the Women’s Liberation Movement swept through the United States and raised awareness surrounding problems with women’s agency. It also advocated gender equality after years of inequalities in the fields of access to education, work opportunities and segregation in the workplace. This dissertation utilizes the 1970s as a focal time period, since it was a pivotal decade for feminists destabilizing patriarchal rule that had dominated society for centuries. By analysing photographic works produced during the 1970s by feminist artists Hannah Wilke and Cindy Sherman, this dissertation aims to identify how the male gaze manifests within women’s self-representation and how artists like Wilke and Sherman used their femininity to subvert it. An evaluation of how far feminism has shifted the representation of women in art is made later on in this dissertation, with reference to some contemporary artworks by Deana Lawson and Petra Collins, which introduce new perspectives of the gaze, namely the ‘oppositional gaze’ and the ‘female gaze’.

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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design

The Modern Love Affair between Generation Z and Nostalgia Katie Mackinnon The intrinsic relationship between nostalgia and visual imagery that has inspired ‘Generation Z’, a cohort of today’s society driven by reflective and restorative nostalgia, has become a prominent focus of contemporary art and history in a diverse range of psychological and visual culture.

Once labelled a sickness related to insomnia and loneliness, our perception of nostalgia has shifted towards a commercial craze, a construct that has permeated modern spheres of influence.

‘The Kinetic Issue’ i-D. No. 184, March 1999.

My dissertation explores the 1990s, a decade that witnessed a change of view in sex, gender and politics, though relatively untouched by the online phase that followed in the 2000s. This dissertation investigates the psychology of Generation Z and its deep-rooted obsession with nostalgia and how strongly it is represented in their choices of consumption of fashion and visual aesthetics.

The exploration of theoretical critique for and against nostalgia guides this dissertation through the examination of this nostalgic love affair. By exploring 1990s visual aesthetics and attitudes in comparison to contemporary behaviours, techniques and styles that members of Generation Z exhibit on their personal social media or in the way they dress, analysis of the ‘victim of nostalgia’ complex is investigated. This idea relates to the ways in which the media represents nostalgia as a commodity, a portrayal very different from the historical perception of this emotion.

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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design

The Mythological Muse: An Exploration of How Women are Represented in Pre-Raphaelite Paintings Amy Matthews The Pre-Raphaelites were a brotherhood turned art movement that rebelled against the traditionalist values of the Royal Academy. In 1848, a group of seven artists, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and John Evert Millais, opposed the promotion and imitation of Raphael, the Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance.

They believed art should be painted from real life.

This ideology was further supported by art critic and patron John Ruskin who established the term ‘Truth to Nature’ in Modern Painters (1843). The brotherhood only lasted six years, until 1854, but they arguably left a legacy that altered British art forever by starting a chain of countercultures in art history.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Proserpine. c. 1874. Oil on canvas. 125.1 cm × 61 cm. Tate Britain, London.

However, this legacy is not solely theirs to claim. What dominated Pre-Raphaelite art was the image of women.

Representations of women vary from mythological influence, such as Proserpine, in which Jane Morris modelled as goddess of the underworld trapped by Hades (or Pluto) for eating forbidden pomegranate seeds, to Victorian themes surrounding the ‘Angel of the House’ or the ‘fallen woman’.

These two key themes alone highlight what life was like for women during the 19th century.

Oppressed by a patriarchal society, woman did not have the same opportunities as men and any creative or independent thought was disregarded or worse.

A second wave of feminist historians have shone light on Pre-Raphaelite woman and ultimately this dissertation aims to praise the sisterhood including Elizabeth Siddal, Annie Miller and Jane Morris. In many cases they were artists in their own right, but definitively they were the inspiration for the entire Pre-Raphaelite movement.

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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design

‘Not in my Movie’: How has the Role of Women in Horror Films Changed since the 1950s?

Shannon Munro Still from Scream showing Sidney perform the line ‘not in my movie’, dir. Wes Craven.

Dimension Films, 1996.

Women in horror films have had many different roles over the years and have been represented in a myriad of ways. They have been painted as damsels, heroes, villains, and bimbos, to name a few of their roles, and have been the topic of much discussion about how these portray women to the audience and why. I used arguments made by theorists Laura Mulvey and Carol J. Clover to try to piece together how and why women have such a varied place in horror films and how this has changed over time.

Mulvey’s discussion centres around the male gaze: a masculine viewpoint that films are arguably catered towards.

She argues that women in film are there to be looked at and provide erotic pleasure for the male characters and audience whilst the male hero saves the day. I use this argument as evidence for my points, but I also critique it as it could be considered outdated today.

From Dracula (Fisher, 1958) to Scream (Craven, 1996), this dissertation aims to explain how and why representations of women have changed in horror films since the 1950s.

This essay suggests that there has been a dramatic and obvious transformation that has taken place over the forty years between the two films, leaving women on screen in the modern day in a much better and fairer position than they were in the 1950s.

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BA (Hons) History of Art and Design

Decolonising the Curriculum: Addressing and Dismantling Eurocentrism in the UK History of Art Curricula Emily Southcott Eddie Chambers.

Deconstruction of the National Front, 1979 – 1980. TATE.

Britain’s colonial histories and the dominance of its Western power has influenced how and what is taught within classrooms across the UK. These factors create a narrow lens of art history that favours white artists and theorists. This keeps in place power structures that continue to suppress black and brown culture, art and perspectives.

These damaging formations of the university environment contribute to the elitist nature of art history subject matter outside of the classroom, with only 5% of museum workers representing Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic groups (BAME).

To decolonise the history of art is to recognise these histories and power dynamics in order to expand the curriculum so that it includes artists who do not exclusively belong to white communities. Art in itself is an accessible form of language that allows anyone from any background to engage with universally.

Through historical contextualization of the university space, we are able to begin the recognition of Eurocentric practice.

This will set up the first stage of decolonisation, through which key areas of the art history curricula can be put up for debate: the avant-garde, Modernism, and postmodernism. Relevant primary sources will support these debates, such as artworks

by Pablo Picasso, Wifredo Lam and Donald Rodney, as well as archival documents from the BLK Art Group. This will be supported by a range of theorists such as Partha Mitter, Stuart Hall and Aníbal Quijano to name a few. Of key importance is to address and dismantle European dominance, in order to improve student experience and extend the call for decolonisation as an act of social justice.

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BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History

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BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History

The Butterfly Existence of the Bright Young Things: Exploring the Costume Parties and Media Representation of Britain’s Interwar Generation Jemima Bridgman

Gordon Anthony.

Cecil Beaton in his fête champêtre rabbit costume. 1937. Gelatin silver print. National Portrait Gallery.

This dissertation follows the Bright Young Things throughout the British interwar period (1918-1939), tracing their movements in fancy-dress costume through representations in interwar press publications. The Bright Young Things and their unsteady journey as the period’s high society youth are a key example of the press’s ability to simultaneously build and yet tear down the images of those within the public eye.

This is drawn into even sharper focus when explored in conjunction with the Bright Young Things’ own damaging reliance on the press for attention they were unable to claim elsewhere in society due to their largely meritless positions during World War I. Representation and its role within the lives of the Bright Young Things is the central critical theme of this dissertation.

Scope to explore this theme has been provided in unparalleled clarity by the large body of work produced by Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) during his time within the Bright Young Things’ company. Beaton’s work, including his memoirs, diary entries and most importantly his own representations of the Bright Young Things through his photography, has been central in exploring both the beauty and freedom provided by the wild and wonderful fancy-dress costumes worn by the Bright Young Things, as well as the persistent undercurrent of post-war pain and uncertainty that the costumes shallowly masked. Fancy-dress costume and representation reveal themselves to be deeply entangled, exposing a fragile and butterfly-like element of the Bright Young Things’ lives that was often overshadowed by representations of wild parties and immoral behaviour.

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BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History

From Weaver to Wearer: The Tradition of Welsh Woollen Dress Emma Bull My dissertation stems from my own Welsh heritage. I developed an interest in Welsh national dress from a young age, wearing it for events such as the school Eisteddfod and St David’s Day, but what always fascinated me most was the material from which it was made.

Welsh wool is one of the most integral industries in Wales and the clothes that are made from it are some of the most intricate yet durable items you may come across.

A Welsh wool maxi skirt and vest set in the pattern ‘Knot Garden’. Created

by Melin Tregwynt mill. c. early 1970s. Black and white photograph. Melin Tregwynt—Our Story.

My research focuses primarily on the use of Welsh wool within clothing from the early 19th century, when the Welsh national costume was established by Lady Llanover, to its downfall during the First World War and interwar period. My research also examines the re-establishment of Welsh wool garments in the 1960s and 1970s and its use and collectability in the present day.

My dissertation takes an anthropological approach to the use of Welsh wool in traditional Welsh dress. My research argues that women have been forgotten in its vast history and emphasizes the importance of Welsh wool in material culture, focusing on its impact within memory, heritage, and Welsh identities. My research aims to establish the key role Welsh wool plays in the development of traditional dress in Wales and how it impacts social histories of dress in Wales.

For this dissertation I consulted St Fagan’s Museum in Wales, the National Wool Museum, and the works of Welsh folk life historian John Geraint Jenkins (1929-2009) who researched the Welsh wool industry regarding trade and heritage in Wales.

I also integrated my personal collection of Welsh woollen garments to dissect its impact in collectability.

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BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History

Stayin’ Alive: Sexuality, Ethnicity and Class in the Costumes of Saturday Night Fever Sarah Carnall

Anonymous Photographer.

Promotional Image for Saturday Night Fever.

1977. Colour photograph.

Paramount Pictures/ IMDb.

Disco was a short-lived yet impactful part of popular culture in the 1970s, with one of the lasting memories being the award-winning 1977 film Saturday Night Fever, directed by John Badham. The white suit John Travolta wears in his role as Tony Manero has become an icon of the disco subculture, reflecting the importance of a costume in a film. This dissertation explores this phenomenon, and how the work of a costume designer can aid the narrative of a film by creating a character through dress. I look at the use of colour in costume, noting how the white suit has complex connotations of making Tony appear as a hero in his working-class environment, as well as being synonymous with the villainous styles of 1930s gangsters such as Al Capone.

As well as the white suit’s powerful connotations, other costumes are analysed to understand how character is conveyed to display different elements of Tony’s personality, in particular his hypermasculine behaviour. My dissertation uses ideas from fashion historian Shaun Cole to show how Tony’s clothing is similar to queer fashion. This is compared to research by academic Stelios Christodoulou, who suggests Tony’s Italian-American ethnicity explains his violent and misogynistic attitude. Tony’s working-class identity is also reflected in his dress, and this is compared to the clothing shown in the 1976 film Rocky. Ultimately, this dissertation argues for the importance of the costume designer’s role, and how their work elevates a character and reflects their identities.

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BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History

More Than a Little Old Woman in a Gray Gown: Examining Dress in Ritual, Superstition and Witchcraft During the 16th and 17th Centuries Elena Field The early modern period is known for one of the most brutal examples of mass hysteria on record: the witch hunts. Hundreds of men and women were trialled, tortured and executed. At this time clothing was arguably the most valuable object a person could possess, being a prominent social signifier that expressed identity, class and status. This dissertation situates dress in the witch craze and explores how clothing and appearance could also be synonymous with witchcraft and a basis for accusations.

Unknown maker.

‘Gown of Humiliation’ or ‘Witch-Shirt’ worn by Anna Kramerin. 1680.

Linen. Heimatmuseum, Veringenstadt.

Whilst witch hunting was the result of strenuous social conditions, it was also a suppression of female agency and sexuality, targeting old, impoverished women who were considered sexually licentious. This dissertation relates this concept to appearance and dress through the analysis of original witchcraft pamphlets that illustrate witches as undesirable old hags.

This dissertation also explores how dress was considered a holder of supernatural and spiritual potency. Witches were stripped of their clothes due to the belief that they held items of sorcery in them. This point is most evident in objects such as the ‘witch-shirt’, which was made specifically to be worn by an accused witch during torture. This garment was imbued with religious meaning by having consecrated magical notes sewn into the seams, making a stark contrast between religious purity and the witch’s sin. In short, this dissertation analyses to what extent dress had a role in the beliefs and constructs regarding witchcraft, ritual and superstition during the 16th and 17th centuries.

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BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History

Inspired by Paris: Home Sewing, Fashionability and the Influence of French Fashion in 1950s Denmark Nina Friis Kildegaard

Kirsten Kierulff-Hansen.

Fashion drawing of the wedding dress she made for herself, which was heavily inspired by a Dior dress. 1957. Pencil and watercolour on paper.

Personal collection.

In the 1950s, Paris was the internationallyacknowledged capital of women’s fashion and the home of the expertly-crafted clothing known as haute couture – considered the epitome of taste, luxury, and innovation. New styles and trends were dictated by Parisian designers and spread through society from the top down.

Widely promoted in Denmark by magazines and the local clothing industry, French fashion was glorified as the ultimate source of inspiration for professional and home dressmakers.

This dissertation examines how these French influences were linked to fashionability in 1950s Denmark with a specific focus on how this related to home sewing.

Fashionability implies taste and an understanding of the world of fashion while also conforming to its rules and trends.

The starting point of the dissertation is the personal experience of my great aunt Kirsten Kierulff-Hansen (born 1934), shared through an interview and several of her drawings and photographs. As a young woman, she was an avid home dressmaker who also studied fashion design in Copenhagen from 1956-1958. Danish-made clothing in the 1950s was reliant on French influences to be considered trendy, however, only the very privileged few could afford the high fashion clothes adapted directly from haute couture designs.

As prices fell, so did the quality and fit of the garments, while the designs became increasingly simplified to appeal to larger audiences. Home sewing was thus a way for the average woman to implement Paris trends in her wardrobe at a lower price, making it more affordable and achievable to be in fashion, along with enhancing individuality through the possibilities of customisation and creative self-expression.

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BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History

Office to Sofa, Workwear to Loungewear: Dressing for Success and Lockdown Kay Lawrance 2020 was a peculiar year. The lockdown in March meant that many people were suddenly working from home with little time to plan how they were going to do it.

Adrian Tomine. Love Life.

Cover of The New Yorker Magazine. 7 December 2020. Condé Nast.

In 1959, sociologist Erving Goffman wrote The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life in which he described how people play different roles in different parts of their lives.

Goffman used the concepts of “frontstage” and “backstage” to define the regions people performed in.

Before lockdown, the women interviewed for this study worked in frontstage regions, away from home. They had formal clothes, a costume, suitable for these roles just as they had casual clothes suitable for their backstage roles at home.

In lockdown their backstage regions became where they performed their frontstage roles.

The women were visible on video calls in lockdown and needed to choose clothes that would look professional, but not be too formal for their home environment. They had all started their careers at a similar time when a particular style of formal workwear was common, championed by John T. Molloy in his Dress for Success books. The changes they needed to make in lockdown were part of a continuing pattern of wardrobe modifications they had made over their careers.

The study also considered the factors that had influenced their clothing choices and those of their contemporaries. All the women found different ways of dressing in lockdown, choosing clothes that made them feel both physically and psychologically comfortable in their roles.

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BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History

Elsa Schiaparelli: Art and Collaboration in the Fashion of 1930s Paris Patricia Nathan

Evening Coat designed

by Elsa Schiaparelli, 1937. Photograph, Bridgeman Images.

This dissertation explores the intriguing artistic relationship between fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli and contemporary Surrealist artists, including Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau, in 1930s Paris. Schiaparelli was exceptionally productive during this period of her career and her creative output throughout the decade is regarded as exceptional and highly influential. Schiaparelli navigated the challenges of the interwar years while displaying a flair for business matters, seizing opportunities that came her way on a professional and a personal level. She forged links with key players in the world of art and fashion and through her innovative approach to fashion design stood out from her contemporaries.

This research also explores the important working collaboration between Schiaparelli and the era’s leading embroidery firm, Maison Lesage. It aims to illustrate how like-minded artists, sharing a passion for Surrealism and the avant-garde, influenced Schiaparelli’s creative practice.

With reference to the seminal book by leading curator and author Dilys Blum, Shocking! The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli, this dissertation reveals the intricate details behind some of Schiaparelli’s most recognizable garments, with a particular focus on the designs produced in collaboration with artist, writer and filmmaker Jean Cocteau.

An example can be seen in this image of an embroidered evening coat, designed in 1937. Schiaparelli fully embraced the Surrealist art movement at the point when fashion collided with art and leading fashion designers, such as Schiaparelli, aspired to be seen as artists in their own right.

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BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History

Femininity and the Fashion Doll: How Contemporary Designers are Engaging with the Barbie Doll Rachel Ng ‘One is not born, but rather, becomes a woman’.

(Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1949)

Jian Yang, ‘Flushable Fashion’ made from a napkin, 2020.

Photograph. Jian Yang Instagram.

In 1959, the toy company Mattel released a plastic doll that would change the fashion doll industry forever. Her name: Barbie. The three-and-a-halfinch waist, long, slim legs, and accentuated bust of the doll reflected the societal ideals to which women were expected to conform in the 1950s, perfectly recreated in miniature form. This dissertation explores Barbie’s entwinement with the feminine ideals of the 1950s and the haute couture industry. As a way of developing the discourse surrounding Barbie, this research examines contemporary engagement fashion designers have had with the doll.

Beijing-based Guo Pei, Italian duo Magia2000, and Singaporean Jian Yang are used as case studies to investigate how Barbie has remained at the core of the fashion and doll industries.

The instability of femininity is also uncovered, drawing upon Simone de Beauvoir and Judith Butler’s gender theories.

Both theorists argue that gender expression (femininity and masculinity) is a socially constructed act that is developed over time, suggesting that femininity can be reinterpreted and subverted. For Pei, Magia2000, and Yang, the Barbie doll becomes a site for the exploration of femininity through their creativity. Both Pei and Magia2000 extend the couture industry through their intricate designs, becoming pieces of art in themselves rather than children’s playthings. Yang critiques the nature of the fast fashion industry through the use of ephemeral materials such as toilet paper for his designs.

This also reveals a growing artistic desire to comment upon current fashion practices rather than simply reappropriating existing designs.

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BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History

The Rise of the High Heel: A Socio-Cultural Study of Shoe Fashion – 1920s to the Present Chris Pilkington

Personal, hand drawn images of shoe styles, named heel shapes and heights, reproduced from shoe illustrations in Eunice Wilson, A History of Shoe Fashion, 1974 and PDFs kindly provided

by Rebecca Shawcross, Senior Shoe Curator, Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, 2021.

You would be forgiven for thinking that high heels are a modern invention, born in the 20th century, but they have been around for centuries. The concept of high heels to enhance an outfit and show off a woman’s legs really took off in the roaring ’20s, when hemlines shortened. High heels can physically transform a woman’s body, creating a taller, thinner look, rebalancing the thrust of the pelvis and the breasts.

The rise and fall of heels is a story of historical events, technological innovations and cultural change. Many heels of the 1930s reflected the avant-garde aesthetic of the age.

The heels of the early to mid-1940s were testament to wartime shortages that restricted heel height. Design advancement and the striving for a greater femininity in the 1950s resulted in the stiletto shoe. The 1960s saw a lowering of heels, in spite of even shorter hemlines, partly a response to the feminist and ‘youthquake’ movements. In the 1970s, high heels were accompanied by a thick platform, less elegant than its thin-soled sister. The stiletto rose again in the 1980s and beyond that in the 1990s, spurred on by television series such as Sex and the City.

In the current period, have high heels gone out of fashion?

Public health campaigns about damage to wearers’ feet and a surge in popularity of practical footwear such as designer trainers and low-heeled shoes suggest that they have waned in appeal, but fashion is ever-changing. The high heel will continue to be subject to the rise and fall of fashion tastes.

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BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History

Worn in the Words: Women’s Relationship with Clothing and Textiles in the American West, 1836-1900 Olivia Terry

W.H.D Koerner. Madonna of the Prairie. C. 1921-22.

Oil on canvas. 94 x 73 cm. Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

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As the 19th century progressed, the American republic’s desire to expand its grasp all the way to the Pacific Ocean increased. By the 1840s, families were prompted to go west by economic depression, the promise of cheap land, and the wish to spread American ideology. During the period of westward expansion, many left their old lives behind and travelled west in covered wagons, where the nature of land was tumultuous and the journey often lasted for months.

This dissertation explores how 19th-century American women’s roles during westward migration translated into their relationship with clothing and textiles. It relies heavily on women’s personal diaries and recollections of their experiences in the American West. As the power of the growing country increased, the expectations of women as the ‘purveyors of civility’ similarly expanded, as the frontier’s land and people were emphasized as subjects in need of moral guardianship. Upon the journey west, growing anxieties surrounding their gender and social roles prompted women to cling to high standards of dress, allowing them to maintain some control over the unpredictable environment. They employed clothing as an identifier, asserting racial differences between themselves and Native Americans. Furthermore, journal entries suggest women infused clothing of lost loved ones with sentimental meaning and applied their own racial biases to the clothing of Native Americans. Upon arriving in the west, many women were able to compromise with the restrictive environment through creative sewing solutions.

BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History

Subversive Seduction?

The Role of Burlesque in Narratives of Feminisms Alice Veness Burlesque is a rich and varied act that has traditionally been associated with tease.

It parodies the erotic unveiling of the body through disrobing in a satirised manner.

The female body, its unveiling, and the power play between male and female in the act has caused controversy since burlesque’s vaudeville origins in the 1860s.

Lili St. Cyr’s Headline shot for El Rancho Vegas. c.1953.

Las Vegas Review Journal.

This dissertation was inspired by my curiosity about burlesque and its uneasy placement in the historical development of feminist discourse, where equality for women has always been a key aim. My dissertation focuses on the entwinement of narratives of feminisms from the second and third wave and the performance of burlesque, comparing burlesque practices in the periods of the 1950s-1960s and 1990s-2010s.

The research discusses how the style and presentation of burlesque has changed and examines what this means in the context of changing ideas and debates around being female.

The act of 1950s burlesque focused on women performing a character to entertain and arouse the male audience, as theorised through the work of Kaitlyn Regher. In contrast, since the 1990s, neo-burlesque has focused on self-representation, wherein performers themselves decide how they are viewed.

The changes in these acts reflects the further empowerment in women’s rights from the mid- to late 20th century, leading to the contemporary public understanding that burlesque is a creative and self-expressive art form that puts the individual performer in control. The research concludes that burlesque is a nuanced and complicated act that continuously evolves, not only from time period to time period, but from individual to individual. It is a highly important and relevant glimpse into female history and the performance of the female body.

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BA (Hons) Visual Culture

BA (Hons) History of Art and Design

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BA (Hons) Visual Culture

Cisnormative Ideology & The Transgressive Gothic Monster in Jonathan Demme’s ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991) Annie Jones Buffalo Bill creating his ‘woman suit’. Film still from The Silence of the Lambs. Jonathan Demme. 1991.

From the eighteenth century gothic to the modern horror film, monsters have provided audiences with an opportunity to confront their most repressed fears about the evils in society.

However, these fears have often been capitalised upon and weaponised against marginalised communities and their perceived otherness.

This dissertation focuses on The Silence of the Lambs and its monster Buffalo Bill as it remains one of the most significant examples of a trans-coded killer’s deviation from the gender binary being utilised to produce fear.

According to gothic theorist Jack Halberstam, the threat of Bill depends upon the violence of his gender identity crisis and the explicit violation of cisgender women’s bodies as he creates a ‘woman-suit’ made out of victim’s skin. This turns gender transgression into an abnormal psychological state capable of mortal consequences. In my analysis, the impact of Bill’s character is more important than the intentions behind his creation, as despite the film’s efforts to distance Bill from trans individuals, he is still heavily trans-coded and read that way by many audience members.

Using Kenneth Burke’s theory of identification, I argue that it is through the utilisation of cisgender ideology that the gender deviant codes which are intended to make Bill terrifying are formed successfully, as audiences seek to be associated with certain characters and not others to attain a position in the social hierarchy. For example, despite Hannibal’s positioning behind bars, his ability to blend into and benefit cisnormative society places him above Bill in terms of their monstrousness.

Lecter is depicted as a virtuously clinical authority figure, from this we are expected to trust his pathologization of Bill’s gender dysphoria.

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BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History

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Dissertation Supervisors

Dissertation Supervisors 2020-2021 Dr Angelica Groom Dr Veronica Isaac Dr Yunah Lee

Dr Charlotte Nicklas Dr Ceren Ozpinar Dr Lara Perry

Dr Annebella Pollen Dr Louise Purbrick Dr Megha Rajguru Dr Claire Wintle

Catalogue concept and design Megha Rajguru and Jo Harrison

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Final Year Students 2020 - 2021

BA (Hons) History of Art and Design Stephen Cavenagh Susie Connolly

Charmaine Coombs Rachael Coombs

Leonie Houching

Brigita Litvinovic Lola Lynn

Katie Mackinnon Amy Matthews

Shannon Munro Mingdi Peng

Emily Southcott

Final Year Students 2020 - 2021

BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History Jemima Bridgman Emma Bull

Sarah Carnall Elena Field

Nina Kildegaard Kay Lawrance

Hon (Peter) Lau Patricia Nathan Rachel Ng

Chris Pilkington De Whalley Josephine Stewart Olivia Terry

Alice Veness

BA (Hons) Visual Culture Annie Jones

School of Humanities

The University of Brighton community of Arts and Humanities courses, staff and student evolved from the Brighton School of Art founded in 1859.

For 2021-22 entry, the History of Art and Design programme offers the following degrees: BA (Hons) History of Art and Design BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History BA (Hons) Visual Culture MA History of Design and Material Culture MA Curating Collections and Heritage We welcome applications for doctoral (PhD) research in the history of art and design, material culture and related topics, with some places eligible for funding.

For further information, please contact the university on 01273 644644, enquiries@brighton.ac.uk or visit the University of Brighton website: brighton.ac.uk To follow History of Art and Design programme activities and communications, please see: blogs.brighton.ac.uk/hoad twitter.com/hoadbrighton https://www.instagram.com/hoad_brightonuni The History of Art and Design programme are profoundly grateful to Anne Clements for her generous financial support for the production of this catalogue.

This catalogue has been designed by Jo Harrison jo-harrison.co.uk